Events

The date January 21, 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark Lau v. Nichols (1974) U.S. Supreme Court case. It is the first US Supreme court (SCOTUS) decision related to language rights for multilingual students. The Lau case centered on the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), which had nearly 2,900 non-English-speaking students of Chinese ancestry not having access to meaningful instruction. Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Plaintiffs, explaining, “[T]here is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education.” This was also the first time that SCOTUS dealt with classroom level equity issues. As a direct result of the Lau decision, districts must take affirmative steps to ensure meaningful participation of English Learners in the core curriculum and the most effective way for meaningful participation is through equitable access to a high-quality multilingual education for every child.

This webinar will feature a keynote from U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Montserrat Garibay and two nationally distinguished panels that include: the Lau plaintiff lawyer, school district superintendents, policy experts and academics to examine issues of advocacy, civil rights, legislation, policy implementation and practice using Lau as an analytical lens to support U.S. born and newcomer students learning English as a second language in p-12 schools.

Register for free here.